On the morning of September 4, the award ceremony for the 5th Overseas Chinese Zhongshan Literature Award was held online at Zhongshan Daily Newspaper Group. Xue Yiwei's novel King Lear and 1979 won the Grand Jury Prize. Zhang Huiwen's collection of short stories In the South, Yifu's novel The Sound of Figs Falling to the Ground, and Xie Jiong's collection of poems Black Ode won the Award for Outstanding Works. Fan Qian's full-length novel The Inlaid Harp, Li Fengqun's full-length novel Vast Wilderness, Hei Hai's novel Ebisu Garden Place, Helen Jia's collection of poems A Century of Serenity and Zhou Jieru's collection of essays In Hong Kong won the Award for Shortlisted Works.

The 5th Overseas Chinese Zhongshan Literature Award, jointly sponsored by the China Association for International Cultural Exchanges with Overseas Chinese (managed by the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese), the Guangdong Province Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and the municipal CPC committee and government of Zhongshan, was launched in November 2019. After six-months of solicitation, the organizing committee received more than 110 entries from 16 countries and regions including the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan, as well as China's Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. After preliminary examination and final evaluation, 9 entries were shortlisted.